Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.
Resolution
Chapter 14
Bells rang as Sakura (Matou) opened the salon's door, followed by a chorus from the staff. The young woman briefly looked around, and then giving small smile and shake of the head at the counter staff, headed purposefully to another woman seated in front of a mirror. Said woman was getting worked on by several staff members at the same time, one manicurist or pedicurist each for her hands and feet, while a hair stylist curled her hair.
"Little sister," Sakura began, opening her eyes and indirectly regarding her namesake through the mirror. "Sorry I had you come all the way here, but today's appointment couldn't be canceled or rescheduled."
Sakura (Matou) shook her head. "It's fine." She said. "I understand. I imagine it has something to do with that private affair you mentioned over the phone, though."
"Yes," Sakura said. "And it's the kind of affair that requires me to look and dress for the occasion."
"Well, it can't be helped, I guess." Sakura (Matou) said with a sigh, before reaching into her knapsack and pulling out a neatly arranged set of papers tucked into a clear folder. "It just comes with being someone important. Anyway, here are those documents I mentioned we'll be providing you for reference purposes. You don't need to sign anything, though. Big brother took care of that. I mean…father, is the head of the family, but since he's currently…um, indisposed, well, big brother gets to be the one to sign everything."
"And the headaches, thereof." Sakura remarked while taking the folder and giving it a brief look.
"That's mean, big sister." Sakura (Matou) reproved.
"Am I wrong, though?" Sakura asked while tossing the folder onto the counter before the mirror.
"…no, I suppose not." Sakura (Matou) admitted after a moment. "And to be honest, big brother did admit as much himself. That, and it's not like he could hand the job over to anyone else. I mean, you are older than him, but…well, you're a Tohsaka, and not a Matou."
"Sorry about that." Sakura apologized.
Sakura (Matou) just smiled and shook her head. "It's nothing to apologize for." She said.
Sakura hummed before her expression fell. "How bad is it?" she asked instead.
Sakura (Matou) sighed and her expression similarly fell. "Bad." She said. "The preliminary examination is still ongoing, but…mother…she's…she's going to be confined for a very long time."
"And…your father…?" Sakura asked.
"We've gotten in touch with the…specialist," Sakura (Matou) began, and barely managing to avoid saying 'spiritual surgeon' in the open. "But we're still waiting for confirmation of our appointment. I'll follow up tomorrow if they don't reply within the day. Speaking of which, we've also begun inquiries to see if we can move mother to a…retreat, so to speak, out in the countryside instead of inside the city like she's in today. Who knows? It might work better."
"Or it might not." Sakura quipped before blinking in realization. "That was rude of me, sorry."
Sakura (Matou) smiled weakly and shook her head. "It's fine." She said. "I…guess, I can't blame you for, well, you know…"
"…you know," Sakura began. "The salon isn't too busy right now. If you don't have anywhere to go right now, I wouldn't mind treating you to some pampering."
"I couldn't impose…" Sakura (Matou) began, only for Sakura to interrupt.
"Nonsense," she said. "It's no imposition at all. Just me treating my little sister. Besides, I'm sure it'll be a pleasant surprise for you-know-who."
Sakura (Matou)'s cheeks turned pink, and she hummed and hawed while swaying from side to side. In the end, she just sighed and bowed. "Thank you very much." She said.
"Main power, online." Rin barked.
"Output increase stable." A homunculus reported from his station next to a series of gauges. "Four hundred and fifty seconds to required rating."
"That's fine." Rin said, pacing back and forth behind the command lectern. Sakura had purchased a room in the same building as that…anomalous, café Ahnenerbe, at a price that would otherwise have been highway robbery. That is, if it wasn't for how special the entire location was, so much so that Sakura hadn't simply bought a room but a three per cent stake in the whole business. "Inform me when we reach the twenty-second mark."
"Yes, Lady Tohsaka." The same homunculus from before said. There were other homunculi in the room as well, manning their own stations or standing guard, their presence another consequence of Sakura's investment in Ahnenerbe. Unlike the…otherwise unremarkable, and commonplace homunculi of the Clock Tower, or even Yggdmillennia's souped-up homunculi, these homunculi were the real deal. They could fight Servants to a stalemate or even win so long as Noble Phantasms weren't factored into the equation, although they too shared various…defects, as a side-effect of imperfections in the coining process.
All thanks to one Illyasviel von Einzbern. Someone who was supposed to be dead, and was…
…at least in their timeline. In other timelines, though?
In exchange for hefty cash payments up front, plus other requirements, the murderous little psychopath had been more than willing to provide Murderer Blue with a number of homunculi.
"Nyaa…?" a cat asked from where it was loafing on the lectern.
Rin shook her head, smiling before reaching out to rub her fellow feline's head. The cat purred happily, gently shoving its head into Rin's hand.
"Twenty seconds to required rating." The homunculus from before spoke up.
"Spatial distortion systems online." Another homunculus added.
"Telemetry is online." A third homunculus said.
"Containment field generators on standby." A fourth homunculus said while tapping keys and flipping switches at her station. "PCS is at normal values."
"Gateway is clear," the first homunculus continued. "Stabilizers and energy sinks are idling."
"Causality anchors are stable," A fifth homunculus added. "The Kaleidostick uplink is active, and the prana flow is at normal values."
"All SCHRODINGER systems online," the first homunculus concluded. "All preparations complete!"
"Seal the blast doors." Rin ordered. "Damage control teams on standby, prepare to activate containment fields on my sister's arrival."
"…and just in time too." Sakura said as she teleported in, already dressed for the part, wearing a sleeveless and off-the-shoulders dress of blue and silver brocade, embroidered with white yarn along the edges. A belt of white silk was tied around her waist, featuring a brooch of gold and jade. She also wore long gloves made from white velvet, reaching up past her elbows to end halfway to her shoulders.
Finally, she wore a silver half-mask to complete the look, its black silken strap lost in the elegant curls of her dark hair.
"How do I look?" Sakura asked.
"Edelfelt." Rin said without hesitation, and Sakura grinned in response. "Deploy the containment fields."
"Yes, Lady Tohsaka." The reply came.
As the containment fields fell down one after the other, Sakura approached the command lectern, and brought up Schrodinger's controls. Icons were pressed on holographic screens, and a map brought up, Sakura adjusting the temporospatial dimensions to allow them to jump to an exact location at an exact location.
An electronic chime sounded as a dialogue box appeared on the screen. "Confirm?" it asked.
Sakura pressed a green icon. "Confirm." It read.
"Let us go, little big sister." She said, walking past the command lectern towards Schrodinger, its rings turning one after another before locking in place, the Kaleidostick – or what once been its core – at its pinnacle glowing a blazing blue before the iris slid open, and space-time tore within the gate, allowing sunlight from the other side to pass through to their side. "Onwards, to victory."
"Always, big little sister." Rin murmured, before shifting to her guardian spirit form, and then even further into astral form, curling her being protectively around her sister, moments before passing through Schrodinger.
The first warning that Matou's thugs had was when their convoy turned a corner, only to find a woman standing in the middle of the road further down the street. Well, to Matou's thugs she was just a woman, if strangely dressed in a blue and white dress and wearing a silver half-mask that reflected the sunlight into blinding glare.
Zouken Matou, though, immediately recognized the aura of a powerful magus, blazing like a beacon even in the noon Sun. More than that, he recognized the flamboyant style of House Edelfelt.
Whether it was the way they dressed, or how they approached their opponents, it was always the same. The goal wasn't simply to win. Oh, no. Not for Edelfelt. That wasn't enough for them. It never was.
Winning was always good, but they had to win in a certain way. A way that screamed, "look at me, fear me, worship me".
A part of Zouken actually respected them for that, the sheer nerve with which Edelfelts conducted themselves.
Ironically, for all that Tokiomi Tohsaka's mother had been an Edelfelt, he was nothing like his family. Dull and uninteresting, for all that the airs he put on.
Before Zouken could react, though, Edelfelt struck first. She held up a hand, and spoke an aria. It seemed to be a single-count, but the effect was anything he would have expected from a single-count.
Reality tore above Edelfelt's hand, and she tossed a sphere of…nothing, at the lead car. Just before they could collide, an event horizon formed, a micro-singularity sucking in its surroundings and dumping it into the empty void beyond the event horizon. In a matter of seconds, an entire car and the four thugs inside vanished from this plane of reality.
Screeches filled the air as the convoy came to a halt, the other cars forming a protective barricade around Zouken's own. Then thugs were pouring out, pulling out truncheons and shock batons, and shouting challenges at Edelfelt.
Edelfelt smirked, then pulled out a pair of cylinders before crossing her arms over her chest. With a sharp snap-hiss, twin meter-long blades of blazing white light ignited from the cylinders. The thugs were briefly taken aback, and then steeling themselves, charged forward. Edelfelt similarly charged forward, laughter echoing in her wake even as she dragged her beam sabers against the ground, leaving twin molten trails behind her.
Then they were coming together, a single magus against sixteen thugs. The first man fell cut in two, then the second man behind him had his heart burned out by a sharp stab, then another three men fell cut into burning ribbons as Edelfelt spun like a whirlwind bladed with light. Then she jumped, somersaulting into the air while moving her blades to decapitate a sixth man, before simultaneously landing and reversing her blades to stab back into a seventh man.
The surviving thugs fell back in horror, Edelfelt smiling cruelly before flourishing her blades and charging forward. Just before she made contact, she jumped and flipping through the air, landed in the middle of the thugs, cutting down five men in a single second, causing the remaining four to break and run.
They didn't get far before Edelfelt threw her beam saber, the blame humming as it flew through the air, and cleanly decapitated the remaining thugs, their heads and bodies tumbling across the ground. Edelfelt sniffed as she caught her beam saber, flourishing it in salute before deactivating the blade.
Zouken struck.
Hundreds of worms and insects poured out of the shadows, such that there were in the middle of day, swarming to overwhelm, violate, and consume. Such sweet flesh Edelfelt must have, rich with life and fertile with youth, her soul and its tethers brimming with prana.
A mental impression of two eyes with golden irises flashed open, and the swarm died. Hundreds of worms and insects simply fell dead, Edelfelt raising a hand to brush a dead beetle off her shoulder. Then she turned, regarding Zouken as he stood next to an open car door, stunned into inaction by the powerful presence hovering over and around Edelfelt.
"Who…are…you…?" he stammered out.
Edelfelt ignored him, instead gesturing elegantly into the air. If Zouken could have pissed itself it would have then and there. He'd forgotten more than most magi still alive today remembered, but the sight that met here and now was something he couldn't fail to recognize.
Shimmering into existence with a red haze, was a black-furred feline the size of a cat, its paws shaking the ground as it crept around Edelfelt and towards Zouken. It hissed and snarled as it approached, its low tones reaching deep into the infrasound range, triggering a paralyzing sense of terror in even one such as Zouken, with so much of its Humanity sacrificed in pursuit of power. It was a primal thing, long forgotten but never truly bred out of the species, inherited from when their ancestors cowered in the bushes or the treetops from the great felines that prowled the African savannah.
An elemental.
Edelfelt brought an elemental to back them up.
This battle was lost even before it began.
In the face of such overwhelming power, there was only one thing to do. Even more so for Zouken, because above everything else, it didn't want to die.
"I SURRENDER!" it screamed.
That actually brought the elemental up short. Edelfelt too.
Less prudent magi would have struck then and there, but Zouken wasn't so imprudent. Even if it could kill Edelfelt, the elemental would go berserk in the aftermath, and there would be no surviving its wrath.
"I surrender!" Zouken repeated. "Take whatever you want, just don't kill me!"
Edelfelt tilted their head in apparent confusion. "This isn't a rejection of your surrender," she began, speaking in surprisingly fluent Japanese. "But you're really going to give up? Just like that?"
Zouken scoffed. "And my alternative is to fight an elemental?" it asked back. "I am not so foolish. What are your terms?"
"The girl." Edelfelt simply said, and the pieces fell into place. Of course, that's what this was all about. Edelfelt wanted their pound of flesh from Tohsaka, and sent one of their own to collect and with insurance to boot.
It could respect that.
It'd have done the same thing in their place.
"Take her!" it said, gesturing towards the car and backing away towards the street corner, and the storm drain thereof. "Take her!"
"You. Wait." Edelfelt said firmly, and while it galled Zouken to be dictated too, the colossal elemental positioning itself between them gave such perspective.
Meanwhile, Edelfelt had walked to the car, opened the door, and whispering quickly, managed to cajole a terrified and shaking Sakura Tohsaka out. Then with a screech of tearing metal, Edelfelt tore off the car's rear, and pulled out the girl's belongings. Despite itself, Zouken resisted the urge to roll its eyes.
Edelfelts…the most elegant hyenas my ass…
"Show her what you truly are." Edelfelt commanded. "What our idiot relative who sired her planned to feed her to."
"You can't…"
"DO IT!"
The elemental snarled, and Zouken gave in. The Tohsaka girl screamed as the 'old man' melted into a pile of squirming worms that immediately fled into the drains, clutching in terror at Edelfelt who held her close, whispering into her ear.
"He's coming…the fake priest…" Rin warned.
"Kill him." Sakura responded, holding her younger counterpart – her heir, even, in case her endgame didn't end as she hoped it would – close and tight. "Feel free to go all-out."
"This is going to be fun!" Rin gushed.
"I'm sure it will be." Sakura said before teleporting away. "Five minutes. Finish in that time, and retreat through Schrodinger."
"Roger." Rin replied before loping forward, the ground shaking beneath her feet. Then compressing her spine like a spring, she coiled and uncoiled into a powerful leap, intercepting Kirei Kotomine in mid-air. Paws slammed into the surprised priest with enough force to smash a house into pieces, but all it did was send him tumbling back through the air, the priest even turning it to his advantage to throw a set of Black Keys at Rin.
The conceptual weapons struck her in the side with enough force to tear a modern main battle tank to pieces, but all it did to Rin was send her flying to land skidding back against the ground. She'd probably bruise later, though, once she returned to Human form, but more importantly, it was a reminder at just how…dangerous, Kirei was.
"Well, Sakura did say I could go all-out." Rin thought as she spotted Kirei charging in. "Right, fuck you, you worthless priest. Eat shit and die!"
Rin screamed at the top of her voice, reaching high into the ultrasound range, shattering windows for tens of meters all around, and bursting Kirei's eardrums. Far more devastating was the effect this had on her Marble Phantasm, her elemental abilities generating a powerful tornado that tore roofs and even walls clean off buildings and the ground all around. Cars were sent flying, smashing into nearby buildings with the resulting debris getting sucked up into the air. Even Kirei couldn't escape nature's wrath unleashed, pulled screaming into the heart of the vortex.
As it was, it took only a few seconds before the vortex fell apart, ruined roofs and shattered concrete falling around, to say nothing of Kirei. The priest was badly hurt, his back broken in several places and leaving him unable to move below his neck. His clothes were all torn up, his hair blown clean off, while blood flowed freely from cuts and abrasions in his flesh.
Then Rin was looming just a few feet away. Kirei tried to muster up some defiance, but all he could do was cough and gurgle out blood frothy from a ruptured lung.
"No resuscitations or recoveries." Rin firmly thought before anchoring herself on all fours. She snarled and bared her fangs, mana funneling in from the surrounding environment into a glowing sphere that built in brightness between her jaws. "Take this! Mega Ether Cannon: Hyper Burst Mode!"
Thunder roared and the surrounding suburbs shook as Rin unleashed her power, carving a molten trench into the distance for over a kilometer and several meters deep. There was nothing left of Kirei to bury. In its workshop, Zouken shook its head, marveling at the sheer idiocy and suicidal impulse of Tokiomi's apprentice.
"Did that fool actually think he could fight and win against an elemental?" the vampire wondered, watching through its familiars as the elemental yowled in triumph before teleporting away with the crack of air filling a vacuum. "He got what he deserved."
A/N
And the successor Sakura previously mentioned…
…is herself. Well, a younger version of herself, from the 'normal' timelines where she doesn't murder Rin. All she had to do to get her was pool her resources and over a decade of research into harnessing a 'shackled' Kaleidoscope (from This Cannot End Well) to travel between timelines.
That, and pose as an Edelfelt (which she actually is, so it's not so much as posing as much as embracing her true heritage). With Kirei dead, and Zouken as a witness to how one of the Finnish hyenas are involved in this incident, fun times ahead for this timeline.
